Commemorating 142 Years Since the Battles of Solferino and San Martino
Today marks the 142nd anniversary of the bloody Risorgimento battles of S. Martino and Solferino in 1859, which saw the victory of Piedmontese and French forces over the mighty Austrian army commanded by Emperor Franz Joseph.
Solferino will commemorate this morning at 10 a.m. in Piazza Torelli the anniversary of the battle. Around 300,000 men, with 26,000 horses and 1,500 artillery pieces, clashed along a front of approximately 25 km, from the morainic hills of Garda to the outskirts of Carpenedolo.
There were over 10,000 fallen soldiers, more than 23,000 wounded, and several hundred died later from the severity of their injuries or from subsequent infections. The patriot senator Count Luigi Torelli of Tirano in Valtellina visited S. Martino and Solferino some time afterward.
Exhumations and commemorative initiatives
He observed that many fallen soldiers had been hastily buried, to the point that their remains surfaced. He decided to give all the fallen a proper burial, regardless of nationality, but it was not possible to start the exhumation work before ten years due to existing laws.
Therefore, on June 24, 1869, the exhumations began. Meanwhile, Torelli, Marquis Cavriani, Senator Vincenzo Stefano Breda, Commander Carlo Maluta, and Professor Enrico Nestore Legnazzi established a society tasked with erecting a ossuary in Solferino and one in S. Martino.
The disinterment work lasted about three months, and simultaneously a call was issued to all Italians to raise the necessary funds to build the ossuaries. The first headquarters of the society was in Padua, the city that responded to the appeal with the highest number of subscriptions.
On June 24, 1870, the anniversary of the two battles, the two ossuaries were solemnly inaugurated. Subsequently, the fortress of Solferino was restored, and in 1880 work began to build the tower of S. Martino.
Presidency and accolades
The current president, elected in 1986, is Dr. Fausto Fondrieschi.